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Donation breathes new life into medical training kit
Medical kit that has helped train hundreds of NHS staff in Suffolk is to get a new lease of life at a Zambian university.
West Suffolk Hospital geriatrics and general internal medicine consultant physician Dr Joseph Yikona and resuscitation practitioner Kevin Brown have worked with the University of Zambia’s School of Medicine to provide the teaching school with resuscitation simulation equipment previously used at the Bury St Edmunds hospital.
The equipment, which is considered surplus to requirement in the United Kingdom, can hugely benefit training and teaching in other parts of the world where resuscitation apparatus such as manikins can be very difficult to both find and fund.
Dr Joseph Yikona said: "The University of Zambia is my alma mater and I’m delighted that we were able to donate this vital equipment to the university where I undertook my undergraduate medical training.
"My aspiration is to help Zambia to achieve a clear-cut identifiable, cohesive and deliberate training program in resuscitation and recognition of life-threatening clinical events similar to the NHS here. It is a big but achievable ambition which we will take one small step at a time."
Kevin Brown said: "While the world of resuscitation simulation is moving forward very fast in the United Kingdom, these manikins still could be of huge benefit to teaching universities such as the one in Lusaka.
"Joseph approached our team about the potential of donating the equipment and we were more than happy to help in any way we could."
The simulation manikins will travel around 5,000 miles from Bury St Edmunds to the capital of Zambia, Lusaka.
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